Written in Blue Ink
by Spokensilenc3
Summary: Max is a patient at Death Valley Mental Health Centre. Every day, without fail, she writes with a blue pen on her skin. Fang is the new employee, thrown into the dark world of the mentally ill and hating it. When they see eachother, they both remember their tangled pasts. Can they hold each other up, or will they fall in silence? No wings AH
1. Ink

**I just got this idea in my head. I don't know if I should do more. **

Words. They covered the girl's skin, running messily up her arms and disappearing into her sleeves. Her fingers were covered in the inky symbols, fingernails standing out blankly against the blue pen. They were bitten and bleeding, but the girl hardly noticed. She was intent on one thing – she held a pen carefully poised over her face, steady and sure.

Then, careful and focused, she began to write. Nobody knew how she could write without looking – maybe it was the meaningfulness of the word, repeated over and over again in inky words. Maybe it was her dedication to her work, determination to write. But she does, submerging every inch of bare skin. From her seat on a stool in the middle of her… cell, for lack of better word, she grinned slowly, straight at the camera in the corner of the ceiling, inky words on her cheeks dancing and stretching, unnaturally white teeth standing out in a blue-covered face.

Then, she carefully shut both eyes and began to draw carefully on both eyelids.

"She's going to get ink poisoning one day," the man surveying the screen behind the camera grunted to his co-worker, who sat studying another patient. The other man snorted and glanced over, knowing what he would see. The men who worked at Death Valley Mental Health Centre had been seeing the same sight for everyday since one month ago – the day this particular patient arrived. No one knew why she completed this daily routine – all they knew was if they took her blue pen away, she could send men to hospital to get it back. It had happened before. So they let her keep her pen – they even got her paper to write on. But she always used her skin. No matter what.

0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 000000000

"_Why? Why are you doing this? I'm not mad! I don't want food! I want to get out!" _The boy backed away from the howling patient warily. The man kept throwing himself around, wailing and crying. The boy got a glimpse of bloodshot eyes and yellow cracked nails and a frothing mouth before he leaped out the door, slammed it shut and hurriedly locked it. He could hear muffled thumps and bawling, and shuddered. He pushed his cart full of trays of food for patients along the hallway, arriving at the girl's cell. This was his first day working, and he had never been to see her.

But as he pushed the door open halfway, he caught sight of the girl sitting in the centre of the room, and backed away in horror.

"No, no, no…" he muttered. "Not her."

The girl looked up from her blue pen, catching sight of the dark boy standing in the doorway. And, eyes wide and innocent, said happily,

"Hi Fang."

0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000 

Fang tried a half-smile in return.

"Hey, Max." Max clapped, smiling in joy, eyes twinkling. She raised her open palm, covered in ink, to Fang.

"See, Fang." She said, smile dropping. "If you look real close, you can make out words." Almost unwillingly Fang squinted at the palm, ink blotted together to make a chunky word.

"Ari," Fang said in shock, his voice suddenly choked.

"Yes," Max said in a singsong voice. "Ari, Ari, Ari, Ari, Ari…" her sharp gaze found and held Fangs wide black eyes. "Do you know why it says Ari, Fang?" she asked, head cocked to the side. "Do you know why I'm in this mental hospital? Do you know why I write on my skin every single day? Do you?"

Her voice had risen to a wail and security guards rushed in, knowing she was throwing a fit and would attack Fang any second. But he stood still, staring at Max, face pale.

"Because," Max screeched, struggling as the guards dragged her away. "BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN HE DIED! BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE! IT'S YOUR FAULT, FANG! _YOUR FAULT!_"

A guard managed to clamp his hand over her moth, muffling the accusing words. But Fang could still hear the words echoing in his mind long after Max was dragged away.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT, FANG!" Swallowing thickly, he turned and walked away, head down, and out of Death Valley Mental Hospital, muffled sobs escaping from his white lips, salty tears dripping down his nose.

**It's pretty bad. Thanks!**


	2. Ari

**Hi. So it's school holidays, and I'll be able to update more. Thanks for the reviews. **

XXXX A YEAR EARLIER XXXX

Maximum Ride was Fang Martinez's best friend. Trees were carved - MR+FM 4 EVA - and teachers talked fondly of how devoted they were to each other. Fang had always liked Max, in a more-than-friendly way, but he wasn't sure if Max liked him back. He was always a bit jealous of Ari, Max's little brother, who was seven. Max always spent her time with Ari- she loved him mire than anything else in the world.

One day, Fang made a decision. He knew Max was slipping away from him - she was spending more and more time with her 'girlfriends' and Ari, and Fang knew he had to do something. Being 'best friends' just wasn't enough anymore. So, he asked her out.

Max was delighted.

For two months and three weeks, Max and Fang were in love. They did everything together- everyone knew of their relationship, and loved the sense of innocence and affection. Of plain, pure love.

On Max's seventeenth birthday, something horrible happened. Something unforgettable, tragic and heart-ripping. And Max was right. It was all Fang's fault.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Where's Ari?" Max croaked, pushing away the oxygen mask shoved in front of her face. "Where is he?" She swung off the stretchers, and, ignoring all the doctor's protests and her various injuries, set off to find Ari.

"Max!" She knew that voice. It was Fang. Who she had thought loved her. Who she thought she had loved. It was all lies.

Max pushed past Fang and went to find Ari. Ari, Ari, Ari, Ari. The boy with the golden hair, beautiful green eyes and cheeky smile. Her angel. The thing keeping her sane.

So, anyone could imagine what happened when she found his body, lying there, mauled and distorted from the car crash, mouth gaping in a silent, never ending scream, eyes wide in unseeing terror.

Her wail, so full of pain and agony, could be heard throughout the hospital. And, as her heart broke over the limp little figure in the stretcher, Fang's heart broke with it.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Max had been looking forward to her birthday party for weeks. It was all planned out - she would rent the Town Hall out for the night, she would invite the whole class, and there would be no adults aloud. A typical teenage girl's party.

But… Max hadn't been expecting to find her little brother had sneaked to the party when he was meant to be with her parents, and she definitely hadn't expected to find her boyfriend making out with her best friend, Lissa, in the closet. All in all, the party was falling apart. So, after slapping Fang and breaking up with him, she took Ari and dragged him to the car, ignoring his confused, questioning glances.

She had got the car two weeks ago as an early birthday present, and she got her licence a month ago. So, fighting back tears, she drove a little more recklessly than usual - forgetting about the little boy in the backseat. Her blurred vision couldn't quite make out the car in front of them- it didn't help that their lights were off- and there was a collision. Ari didn't make it.

So, in reality, it wasn't Fang's fault at all. It was Max's.

**Sorry it's short. Review please! **


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